Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Dec;73(4):359-374.
doi: 10.1007/s42977-022-00146-z. Epub 2023 Jan 2.

Is there still evolution in the human population?

Ádám Kun  1   2   3   4   5
Affiliations
Review

Is there still evolution in the human population?

Ádám Kun. Biol Futur. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

It is often claimed that humanity has stopped evolving because modern medicine erased all selection on survival. Even if that would be true, and it is not, there would be other mechanisms of evolution which could still led to changes in allelic frequencies. Here I show, by applying basic evolutionary genetics knowledge, that we expect humanity to evolve. The results from genome sequencing projects have repeatedly affirmed that there are still recent signs of selection in our genomes. I give some examples of such adaptation. Then I briefly discuss what our evolutionary future has in store for us.

Keywords: Human genetics; Migration; Population structure.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author has no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Aassve A, Cavalli N, Mencarini L, Plach S, Livi Bacci M. The COVID-19 pandemic and human fertility. Science. 2020;369:370–371. doi: 10.1126/science.abc9520. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Abdellaoui A, Hottenga J-J, Knijff Pd, Nivard MG, Xiao X, Scheet P, Brooks A, Ehli EA, Hu Y, Davies GE, Hudziak JJ, Sullivan PF, van Beijsterveldt T, Willemsen G, de Geus EJ, Penninx BWJH, Boomsma DI. Population structure, migration, and diversifying selection in the Netherlands. Eur J Hum Genet. 2013;21:1277–1285. doi: 10.1038/ejhg.2013.48. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abel GJ, Barakat B, KC S, Lutz W. Meeting the sustainable development goals leads to lower world population growth. PNAS. 2016;113:14294–14299. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1611386113. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Akey JM. Constructing genomic maps of positive selection in humans: where do we go from here? Genome Res. 2009;19:711–722. doi: 10.1101/gr.086652.108. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alkorta-Aranburu G, Beall CM, Witonsky DB, Gebremedhin A, Pritchard JK, Di Rienzo A. The genetic architecture of adaptations to high altitude in Ethiopia. PLoS Genet. 2012;8:e1003110. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003110. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources